BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, January 12, 1821

Franz Gebauer conducts the Concert spirituel in Vienna today, and his series of Beethoven’s symphonies continues with the Seventh. Reported in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of March 17, 1821, col. 172-176. Gebauer’s efforts to keep Beethoven’s music before the public no doubt cheered up the composer in his recovery.

The Seventh opened the concert. Other works performed included an Alleljua chorus by Beethoven’s old teacher, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger; De profundis by Gluck, Wq.50 (1787); a chorus Lasset uns aufsehen from the passion cantata Die letzten Leiden der Erlösers, Wq.233 (1770) by C.P.E. Bach; and Der Sturm chorus Hob.XXIVa:8 (1792) by Franz Josef Haydn.

Iván Fischer here conducts the Seventh, performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, January 2014.